History

Parent County

1819--Rabun County was created 21 December 1819 from Cherokee Indian lands. County seat: Clayton [2]

Boundary Changes

Rabun County is located in the Northeastern corner of Georgia. It is a mountain community and very rural. Its towns are small and friendly. The mountains are covered with forests, there are rivers and streams, and several lakes.

Rabun County has not had any boundary changes but when researching this county for ancestors you might consider the following. Rabun in located where South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia meet. The geography of the Eastern part of the county is such that many times its residents went to North or South Carolina to conduct business. Records can be found in all three states. When Rabun County was settled, many of the new residents merely crossed the river from South Carolina to the new county and state. They would go back across the river to visit family members and friends. The town in South Carolina was closer than the town in Georgia to purchase supplies. When the Civil War started many men from Rabun County enlisted in South Carolina with their relatives. The geography of the area rather than lines drawn for states determined where events took place and where records were kept.

Census

Church Records

Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. For general information about Georgia denominations, see the Georgia Church Records wiki page.

Court

Genealogy

Land and Property

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include deeds, abstracts and indexes, mortgages, leases, grants and land patents.

See Georgia Land and Property for additional information about early Georgia land grants from the government. After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions (generally buying and selling deeds) were usually recorded at the county courthouse and where records are currently housed.

Land records in Rabun County are incomplete. Many of the land transactions were not recorded at the county seat. Land was traded between family members and neighbors for generations without official records being kept. In 1911, Congress passed the Weeks Law which authorized the purchase of timbered land on a large scale. Some of this land was located in Rabun County, Georgia. Officials were sent into Rabun County in 1912 to start purchasing land. Proposals of sale were secured and surveyors were sent to locate lands on which options had been secured. Their reports were turned over to title examiners who had to pass on the deeds before the lands could be purchased. The titles to most of the lands were so poor that proceedings of condemnation were taken before the Federal Court before good titles could be obtained. A Federal Court was established in Clayton for that purpose.

The condemnation process required that an attempt be made to locate all parties who might have an interest in or claim to the land in question. Advertisements were placed in the local paper listing the descendants of the last clear land owner in order to find anyone who might have claim to the land. Sometimes this was the first land owner when the county was created. Therefore every known descendant was listed down to the time the land was condemed. Over 6,000 names arranged in up to six generations of family genealogies are listed in these court cases. The data this process produced in invaluable to the researcher. Information was accumulated that has not been found in any other records to date. Both the maiden and married names of many female family members can be found. The addresses of those who had moved away also offer possible migration locations for family members. The exact method by which the names were compiled is not known. It is likely they were acquired in many ways, including deeds, newspaper advertisements, personal interviews, and other public records available at the time.

The original court case files are located at the National Archives, East Point, Georgia. The original land acqusition files are located at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Office, Gainesville, Georgia. These groups of records have not been organized or microfilmed. In 2001, Susan Lewis Koyle published Genealogy Extracted from Forest Service Court Cases in Rabun County, Georgia that gives the genealogies in many of these cases and has a name index. This book is located in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It is available for purchase through Heritage Books, Inc.

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Rabun County, Georgia Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories, see the wiki page section Georgia Local Histories.

Sketches of Rabun County History by Andrew Jackson Ritchie. Located in Family History Library in Salt Lake.

Regiments. Service men in Rabun County, Georgia Genealogy served in various regiments. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are companies that were specifically formed in Rabun County, Georgia Genealogy:

Early newspapers published in Rabun County, or for the benefit of its citizens:

The Clayton Argus, published in 1894 by R. E. A. Hamby.

The Tallulah Falls Spray, published from 1896 to 1898 by J. B. Young and Walter Hunnicutt. In early 1898, Mr. Hunnicutt turned the paper over to T. A. Robinson.

The Clayton Tribune, first published in January 1898 by J. A. Reynolds.

The Clayton Telegraph, published in 1898 by A. B. Sams.

Echoes from Tallulah Falls, published in 1899 and possibly into 1900 by Walter Hunnicutt and William Berrie.

Of those periodicals, there are few extant issues. Only two issues survive for the Argus, and those are available on microfilm through the University of Georgia's newspaper project. A good portion of issues are extant for the Spray from 1897 and into the early part of 1898, but only one issue has been microfilmed; the remainder are available as a bound volume from the Rabun County Historical Society. Issues of the Tribune are available from 1899 (the first half of the year through the Historical Society, and the last on microfilm, although not all issues for that year are extant), 1902, 1903, and 1905. No issues are known to survive for either Echoes or the Telegraph. L. P. Cross' article on early newspapers as published in Sketches of Rabun County History by Ritchie contains some errors which have been corrected here by verification through the newspapers themselves.

Occupations

Probate Records

Colonial courts kept some early probate records. From 1777 to 1798 and since 1852, the court of ordinary or register of probates has kept probate and guardianship records. The inferior court handled probate and guardianship matters from 1798 to 1852.

Taxation

Taxes were levied on free white males over 21 and slaves aged 21 to 60. These persons are referred to as "polls." Tax listings, or digests, of a county generally list the taxable landowners and other polls and the amount of tax. The records for each county are divided by militia district.

Extant tax records for Rabun County begin in 1836, but are largely incomplete until about 1872. The Georgia Department of Archives and History houses tax digests (or copies of) from that year up until the 1960s. More modern tax records may be found at the Tax Assessor's office in Clayton. The Rabun County Historical Society also has various tax digests, including two volumes from the 1930s and 1960s respectively.

The 1836 tax digest is held at the Georgia Department of Archives and History. The 1861 and 1862 tax digests are located in the Probate Court at the county courthouse in Clayton. The Probate Court also has road tax records from 1909 through about 1919.

An index to the 1836 tax digest for Rabun County is located online at USGenWeb Archives

An abstract of the 1861 tax digest for Rabun County is located online at USGenWeb Archives

A transcription of the 1909 road tax record for Rabun County is located online at USGenWeb Archives

Marriages were first recorded in Rabun County in 1820, and are maintained by the Probate Court at the Courthouse in Clayton.

The first five marriage books have been microfilmed. Digitized versions of the microfilm copies of those volumes is available online, for free, through Georgia's Virtual Vault in the "Marriage Records from Microfilm" database.

The first three marriage books, covering the years 1820 - 1884, have been transcribed and placed freely online through the Rabun Co., GAGenWeb Archives. Some of the names were transcribed incorrectly, and so the original records should always be referenced. A book-length compilation of Rabun County's marriage records, as transcribed from official marriage records held by the Probate Court, for the years 1820 through the 1940s, is now underway.

Genealogy Societies and Libraries

Family History Centers

Family history centers provide one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites. In addition, many centers have free how-to genealogy classes. See family history center for more information. Search the online FHC directory for a nearby family history center.